


While the City Burns

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Fairytales and Nightmares [2]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-10
Updated: 2011-09-10
Packaged: 2017-10-23 15:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/251625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The man who undid your damage has run mad, nearly taking the universe with him. This isn't courage, this is madness."</p>
            </blockquote>





	While the City Burns

"What have you done?"

Romana glared across the room at Rassilon, her hands clenched into fists to avoid doing what she wanted to do. No matter how satisfying destroying him would be, it would be ultimately futile. It wouldn't change what he had done, to try to change the fate he feared. That all the Time Lords feared.

"I have done what you do not have the courage to do, Lord Romana." His arrogance drenched his words, no regret or remorse in his expression for what he attempted.

" **Courage**?" Romana was barely aware her voice was a near roar of fury. "You tried to destroy a _child's mind_ , and you call it courage," she spat, her fists curling tighter a moment before she flung out a finger to point toward the ravaged city beyond her balcony.

"The man who undid your damage has run mad, nearly taking the universe with him. Your _signal_ is lost because the one who bore it is dead at the hands of the enemy I have been fighting for you and the rest of the **idiots** with whom I share a genetic heritage! This isn't courage, this is madness."

"He can be brought back." Rassilon shrugged, unconcerned and uncowed. "The signal will not be lost, and we will survive. We will rise from the ashes of this war greater than we were. Better than you would have us become." He sneered at her, contempt mingled with a terrifying clarity in his eyes.

"If I bring him back, it will be on my terms, Rassilon."

"Lord Rassilon, child."

"You have not earned the privilege of such a respect, _Rassilon_ , no matter what you have done in the past to raise our species to the heights which it has enjoyed." Romana drew herself to her full height, looking down her nose at Rassilon. Drawing on the authority she'd been given, and the natural arrogance of a Time Lord. "I shall bring Lord Koschei on my terms and not on yours. And I would not wager on his willingness to cooperate with your plan, should I choose to do so."

Rassilon glared at her, anger bleeding into his expression. "Don't sleep heavily, Lord Romana. I will not let you keep that authority you think you hold."

Romana said nothing, merely watching him until he left the room, waiting until the doors slammed behind him to sag slightly, her robes feeling heavier than usual. Her voice soft, raw from her earlier shouting, as she murmured, "So long as Koschei is whole when he comes out of the Loom, it will not matter, Rassilon. Your plans will be useless if he is himself, and I will not allow him to be anything less."

~ ~~ ~

"Arcadia." Romana looked out the window into the small garden Koschei's apartments overhung. Glad for the spot of life where so much was dead and dying. "You're needed at Arcadia."

Koschei came up behind her, resting one hand between her shoulders, the blue eyes of his current regeneration watching her with a curious calm in the reflection in the glass. Waiting for her to meet his gaze before he spoke. "The council seems to think I am needed more here. To assist the Lord President in his plans to save Gallifrey."

"His plans." Romana laughed, quiet and bitter. "I am reduced to a supplicant for his plans. Kept out of the planning that I had begun, the ideas that held the Daleks back, that slowed the war to a crawl. Go to Arcadia, Koschei." She turned, reaching out to grip one hand in hers. "Go to Arcadia, do what you can to hold them there, slow this madness. Do not let that idiot who calls himself Lord President use you."

Bringing up his free hand, Koschei cupped her jaw, a frown drawing his face into creases as he studied her face. Trying to figure out what she knew about Rassilon's plans that he hadn't yet deciphered or been told. She merely smiled back at him, the expression more regret than anything else.

"Please, Koschei. Just go." She stepped back, letting go of his hand, fisting her hands in her robes. So much lighter than those she ought to be wearing, and doubted she'd ever wear again. "Go. Tonight. Please."

He hesitated a moment longer, watching her before nodding, and turning away. Heading for his TARDIS, the one she'd keyed to him while he was still on the Loom, and shown him only days earlier. It had to be tonight that he left, or Rassilon would find out before she could ensure Koschei's safety.

When she found guards outside her own apartments, informing her she was to be escorted to meet with the Lord President, she lifted her chin, eyes glittering with triumph. Proud and straight-backed as she stood where Rassilon had only a few short months before.

"You've put it all in jeopardy for what, Romana?" Rassilon didn't stay still once the doors had shut behind her. Pacing, his hand curling and uncurling, the gauntlet on it clicking as he did so. He turned to glare at her, the certainty of his plans, of his position, shaken. Angry and afraid.

"Because you are wrong," she said simply, her calm born of simple knowledge that if her life was forfeit, it would ensure that a madman was brought down. One way or another. "He's far more useful without carrying the burden of your signal. Brilliant and beautiful."

"You'd condemn an entire world for one man?" Rassilon took a step toward her, and Romana stiffened, bracing herself against what he might do. She'd seen him wrench apart other Time Lords for simply disagreeing with him, and her actions have been far more than simply disagreement. "Have you lost your mind?"

"I rather think not," she snapped, lifting her chin in defiance. "I have only done what I can to protect Gallifrey and the universe, while you sit here and plot to preserve yourself at the cost of the entirety of creation!"

His raised hand, the gauntlet on it glowing, did make her flinch, but she refused to look away, or try to escape, a harsh smile on her face that dared him to carry through on the threat. She was almost disappointed when he lowered his hand instead, summoning the guards back with a snarl.

She wouldn't be allowed to leave her apartments, and her TARDIS would be dismantled. But she was still alive, and that was a triumph in itself, when she had seen the tangle of possible timelines. Had seen her own death at his hands, if the balance tipped only a fraction. Her death, and a future drenched in blood as Rassilon faced Koschei and the Doctor, the Daleks fallen to the wayside as the Time Lords wrenched apart the universe over the death of one small woman.


End file.
